The 10 Dumbest Viral Marketing Campaigns

PC World has a new article out called Lame and Lamer: 10 Dumbest Viral Marketing Campaigns. The list includes such classic viral disasters as the Wal-Marting across America blog and the ill-fated Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare. Two food and beverage campaigns make the list: Coors Code Blue and Cheetos Orange Underground. The author of the article cited So Good’s analysis of the success, or lack there of, that the Orange Underground campaign was having in terms of generating blog postings and online discussion.

Online-brand consultant John Eick, purveyor of the So Good food blog, counted a grand total of 17 blogs talking about the campaign a month after it launched. He wrote:

“The creators probably assumed a campaign with this level of creativity would go viral right away. Clearly it didn’t…. Did they really expect people to start pulling crazy pranks with Cheetos? Who in their right mind is actually going to go out and buy 20 bags of Cheetos to pull pranks with?”

Yup. That’s what I said back then alright. Although I must say, despite the lack of blog postings about the Orange Underground campaign, it’s amazing to me that I still get anywhere from a few dozen to a hundred people a month coming to So Good after searching for Orange Underground.